This invention relates to lubrication retaining bearings, and more particularly, to a bearing for retaining a lubricant between a railway car center plate and its associated center bowl on the car truck bolster.
As is well known in the art, the interface between the center plate of a railway car and the center bowl on the car truck bolster, where the weight of the car is borne by the truck, is subject to considerable wear, and when either of these parts has become too worn, it must be replaced at great expense to the car owner. Moreover, when insufficient lubricant is provided between the center plate and center bowl, these two parts occasionally lock together and interfere with the normal safe operation of the car truck, as for example, the truck's ability to safely follow a curve in a railway track. Accordingly, to minimize wear of these large and expensive parts of a railway car, and to prevent locking of the center plate and bowl, it is highly desirable to provide lubrication between each center plate and its associated center bowl.
One way in which this has been accomplished is by simply placing a quantity of lubricant in the center bowl before lowering the car body onto the trucks with its center plates resting in the center bowls. Of course, this has the effect of lubricating the center plate/center bowl interface, as desired, but the lubricant can and does easily escape from the center bowl. Accordingly, unless the supply of lubricant in the bowl is frequently replenished, the railway car operates without sufficient lubricant in the center bowl, and excessive wear and possible malfunction of the truck's tracking ability is likely to occur.
Since placing of lubricant in the center bowl by the above method requires separating the railway car body from the car trucks, and this operation normally requires a crane to lift the body off of the trucks, the lubrication procedure is, of necessity, expensive and time consuming. Moreover, with lubrication methods known heretofore, the procedure must be performed relatively frequently to avoid excessive wear or malfunction of the center plates and center bowls of a railway car.
Accordingly, in order to enhance the safe operation of a railway car and permit less frequent lubrication of the center plate/center bowl interfaces, there has existed a need for a convenient and effective device for retaining a lubricant between a center plate and center bowl of a railway car, which device is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use. As will become apparent from the following, the present invention satisfies that need.